Lifeguard gets 120 days for abusing girl in '96

A former lifeguard at the Hinsdale Community Pool pleaded guilty today to taking a shower naked at the pool with an 8-year-old girl and sexually abusing her 13 years ago.

Paul Graff, 36, was sentenced to 120 days in the DuPage County Jail and placed on two years of sex offender probation after pleading guilty to aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

Assistant DuPage County State's Atty. Joseph Lindt also told Judge Kathryn Creswell that Graff will have to register for life as a child sex offender.

Graff, of the 7700 block of Lester Lane, Darien, is a former Plainfield elementary physical education teacher who was placed on leave after he was indicted in 2006.

"He was a lifeguard and had befriended the girl and her family when he took her to the men's locker room and into a shower stall while both of them were naked," Lindt said. "He touched her (in several places) making her feel uncomfortable."

Graff admitted inappropriate contact and apologized to the victim in an audio interview with investigators after the victim reported the incident in 2006, when she was 18, Lindt said.

Graff was scheduled to go on trial for the incident on Tuesday and faced up to seven years in prison if convicted. He is to report to jail May 11 to begin serving his sentence. He had no previous record.